


Captain... Hawthorne?

by SlimyWater



Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: But I just wanted something nice, Conversations, Friendship, Gen, How Do I Tag, I noticed most of the fics here are smutty or pretty sad which makes sense to be fair, Just something fluffy I guess, Secret Identity, Sometimes you have to be the change you want to see in the world, Takes place during Comes now the Power, and Stranger in a Strange Land
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28372335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlimyWater/pseuds/SlimyWater
Summary: Parvati had been outside the walls of Edgewater only once before, back when Marauders weren't quite so confident and there were less dead of the plague or long since ran away, yet even then she'd never met anyone quite like Captain Alex Hawthorne.
Relationships: The Captain & Parvati Holcomb
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	Captain... Hawthorne?

**Author's Note:**

> I used my current Captain as the basis for the Captain in this fic, hope that's chill.  
> He's kinda dumb and he's young and he has no idea what he's doing.

Parvati had been outside the walls of Edgewater only once before, back when Marauders weren't quite so confident and there were less dead of the plague or long since ran away, yet even then she'd never met anyone quite like Captain Alex Hawthorne. He didn't dress like folks usually had to, didn't look exhausted like what she'd seen from other workers - yet there weren't something quite right in his eyes - and that gave it away from the moment he'd stepped into Mister Tobson's office that he weren't from 'round here. He carried a weapon though, and he spoke same as everyone else she'd ever known - even though he sounded different - so he clearly knew of the danger lurking beyond their walls. 

She'd decided to help him on a whim with nothing but the conversation with Tobson and her own observations to go on.

So far she hadn't regretted it.

He seemed to have a knack for picking off Marauders one-by-one with a Spacer's Choice pistol she'd seen him fiddling with at a workbench they'd stumbled on whilst trying to find a journal for the Vicar, yet he was even better at beating them down with an Impact Hammer. Parvati knew she herself was adept at fighting - you had to be in Halcyon if you weren't corporate higher-ups or residents of Byzantium - but there was something to be said about a guy shorter than she breaking the ribs of some unlucky Marauder with a single hit. It made her strive to do better.

They fought well together too, Parvati gladly noticed. Edgewater and the greater expanse of Emerald Vale weren't the place to be fighting side-by-side with someone: if you were out fighting 'stead of working then you were misusing company property after all, so she'd never had such an opportunity before, and she enjoyed every second of it. Captain Hawthorne noticed her strengths, giving her ground when she was better suited to knock aside a tamed canid, and they watched each other's backs. It was exhilarating. He was also happy to have her lead 'em through buildings or down streets when it was clear she knew the way better and quicker than he did.

Suddenly, Parvati weren't quite so scared about being outside the walls, or about talking with deserters even if she knew them before. Sure, the company could get confusing at times: the Captain didn't seem to know much about, well, anything, and didn't seem bothered about that neither. He could spend ages reading the labels on food when they scoured abandoned houses for loot, only to grimace and leave the food behind, and sometimes he looked up at the sky like it held all the secrets Halcyon was yet to discover, but he was a decent guy for an outsider. Not that Parvati thought outsiders weren't decent, she'd just never met one so up close and personal before. In fact, she'd never met one at all. Some things about the Captain still didn't add up to her, but she figured he were just an eccentric man, and left it at that. Weren't her place to go investigating him, either way; doubtless he wouldn't be staying long once he got his ship up and running.

They'd just cleared out the community centre and found the Mechanic Guide to Engineering: Volume 1 for Thomas - and some medicine that the Captain had picked up and stowed away with a considering glance - when Hawthorne had cleared his throat.

"Thanks." He'd said, all meek-like, and Parvati had offered him a kind smile.

"Don't need to thank me, Mister. I'm happy to help." She'd replied, and he'd given her a small smile in response.

"You were just helping with the," here he'd flapped his hand around, gesturing vaguely, "adapter thing, not all this. So I appreciate it either way."

"Power regulator." Parvati corrected thoughtlessly before she jolted and her expression became panicked. "That is- The 'adapter thing' is- Well-. You're welcome, Captain Hawthorne. It's been fun. Well, not exactly fun- Not with all the killing an' the big moral choices an' all. Those Automechanicals too were nothin' to jump for joy at-"

The Captain interrupted her ramblings softly, but his brows were furrowed. "Parvati. I'm not actually Captain Hawthorne."

That drew her up short and she'd stopped in her pacing, turning to face the not-Captain Hawthorne. Or was it the Captain not-Hawthorne? It could have been not-Captain not-Hawthorne too, her brain reasoned. The man could have been anyone. A smuggler, a criminal, or maybe even a corporate spy. Law, and she'd just been giving him information left and right long before they'd skipped outta the gates from Edgewater. 

He pulled out a chair from a recently emptied table and sat on it, what cobbled bits of armour he'd scavenged scraping against the chair and causing them both to share an awkwardly exasperated glance - Law knows they'd both had to hear that sound too many times for the last few days they'd been traisping all over Emerald Vale - and he'd fiddled with the long handle of the Impact Hammer he settled on his lap. She followed suit and pulled out the adjacent chair, settling on it in a much quieter fashion.

Not-Hawthorne started talking again, and Parvati paid close attention. "The actual Captain Alex Hawthorne uh..." He screwed his nose up and looked, for lack of a better word, guilty. "Well, there was an accident with a beacon and he didn't make it."

"Capt- Mister... Did you kill him?" 

Not-Hawthorne dropped his hold on the hammer and ignored it as it crashed to the ground and seemed to sputter and fritz somethin' ugly. He held his hands up and waved them about frantically. "Not on purpose! I was in the pod, I couldn't control anything from inside there!"

Parvati looked into his eyes and they seemed anguished enough that she deduced he probably weren't lying. 'Sides, they had been killing almost exclusively the past few days - though they weren't assuming the identity of the Marauders they were shooting at. "Alright, Mister, I believe you."

He let out a great gusty sigh and his shoulders slumped. "Thank God." He muttered, and she brushed aside her confusion at that.

"However," she began, and didn't miss the way Not-Hawthorne-But-Actually-Hawthorne's-Accidental-Murderer tensed all over again, "that don't rightly tell me who you are."

"Oh." He looked relieved again that they were moving on. "My name is Charles. Charles Lowell. I..." He scratched at his cheek, pausing to muse on something before nodding to himself. "I was a colonist onboard the Hope, and now technically I am the Captain of a ship, since I became the new Captain after Hawthorne's unfortunate accident."

Parvati just stared at the newly revealed Charles, uncomprehending. 

If she even pretended to believe him for a moment... What he was saying was insane. The Board had told them years ago that the Hope wasn't real, just a story concocted by those sick of the mind and of the character. There had never been any reason to doubt that. Parvati herself didn't know much outside of stories told by folks who'd been addled with old age and making to pay off debts so they could rent their plot of land in time. She'd always thought there'd been nothing much to know.

Charles smiled at her, seemingly sympathetic as she struggled to so much as blink. "I know, I must sound crazy. I asked around a little and it sounds like everyone thinks it's all fiction. I don't know what I can do to prove it to you right now."

Parvati managed a solitary blink before she internally kicked herself. Now was no time to be sitting around looking lost and getting all frazzled. It was big news, sure, but she was an engineer; the best Edgewater'd ever had. She needed to think about all this logically, rather than letting herself be bogged down by the impossible.

In a way, the things she'd been noticing since they'd set off would make a little more sense if he were telling the truth: the confusion at just about every product they'd walked past, the awe at things that weren't even slightly out of the ordinary, the way he spoke weren't typical neither... And some of the things he'd said. Well, if she believed him, then a couple things might be explained.

And, she reasoned internally, he weren't much of a liar anyway - aside from the whole stolen identity thing. She'd watched as he'd smiled at Adelaide after the old woman had called him Sweetheart with soft eyes, then proceeded to tell her he'd be shutting off their power. It was ruthless at times - Parvati had seen the kindness sucked from those soft eyes and replaced with quite the appropriate level of outrage - but it weren't always intentional. He weren't the greatest at reading people. Charles just seemed to be trying to make the best out of what circumstances he'd been thrown into - quite literally if his story were to be believed.

She had to make a decision either way. Whether she believed him or not. He was starting to get visibly nervous, fidgeting around and looking like he'd swallowed a Purpleberry Bunch whole.

In the end, Parvati decided it weren't the kind of lie you'd want to be making if you wanted someone to fall for it easy.

"Alright." She said lightly, mind made up. She stood and Charles hurried to follow her, though she didn't move from her position. "I believe you, Captain Lowell."

His eyes widened as if that were the last thing he'd expected - which it was, she bet - but then the brightest smile she'd seen from him so far appeared on his face. "Thank you." He said, so sincerely she half expected him to hug her. Not that she'd turn down a hug, it'd been ages since anyone in Edgewater had hugged her. Not since dad... Well, anyway. Charles looked the happiest she'd ever seen him, and so she was compelled to smile back.

"Don't need to thank me, Mister." She replied and he laughed.

"Yeah..." He said, voice soft, smile still firmly in place. It dropped when he glanced at his hands and realised his hammer weren't there no more. It dropped even further when he looked down at the weapon laying on the ground and still letting off the occasional spark. "Aw hell." He muttered, and her brows furrowed in confusion, before she just rolled her eyes.

"No need to worry Captain, we find a workbench with the right tools and I'll have it fixed up in a jiffy. For now though, maybe just use the pistol."

Charles picked the hammer up and offered up a sheepish grin. "Good idea." He tucked the impact hammer away and got out his trusty Spacer's Choice pistol before casting a final glance over the room.

"Let's get going to the Botanical Labs." He said. "I reckon we could convince Adelaide to go back to Edgewater."

"Sure thing Captain, though I'm not one for words like you are."

She watched as he shrugged. "Doesn't seem that way to me Parvati."

Parvati looked at him in confusion, but he offered no follow-up to that, merely replaced his pilfered helmet and walked out of the door. She hurried to follow him.

He was a strange fellow, but part of her hoped that maybe he'd consider taking her along when he left Emerald Vale for the stars. She'd always dreamed of being an engineer on a ship.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for reaching this point.  
> Hope you enjoyed, let me know if you did or if you didn't, I'd love to hear from you.  
> Also let me know if I made any mistakes because the thing I wrote this on didn't have spellcheck enabled and I don't have anyone to check over it.
> 
> Hoping to write more for this fandom, because it really needs more.  
> Take care.


End file.
